Bury Council is working with partners to explore the feasibility of installing a low carbon heat network in Bury town centre.
Heat networks supply heat from a central source to consumers, via a network of underground pipes.
Sometimes described as ‘central heating for cities’, heat networks can cover a large or small area, and avoid the need to have individual boilers or electric heaters in each building.
The council has been awarded Government funding from the Heat Network Delivery Unit (HNDU) to explore whether such a scheme could work in Bury. It has appointed AECOM to produce a technical economic feasibility report and Turner and Townsend to support with project management and stakeholder engagement.
In the short term, the work is focused on supplying heat to council offices and other large buildings such as Bury Grammar School, Bury College, Townside Primary Care Centre and the proposed development that makes up the town centre masterplan. In the longer term, the network could supply more buildings in the area as encompass a heat network zone, where all buildings are encouraged to connect. The feasibility report, which will assess the viability of the heat network, will be completed early next year.
Councillor Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, climate change and operations, said: “The council has set a target to be carbon neutral by 2038.
“One area that we need to tackle is the emissions associated with heating our buildings, which is usually done by using gas. Gas is a fossil fuel and therefore we need to decarbonise by moving away from gas heating to electric heating, especially as the national grid decarbonises through using more and more renewable energy.
“One way to decarbonise a lot of buildings in one go is to introduce a low carbon heat network. This proposed heat network in the town centre will be using a low carbon source such as a water source heat pump, sewer source heat pump or an air source heat pump. This would remove the need to install an individual heat pump to every building.
“This will be a huge step in the right direction for the council, and will also help other partners in the town centre with their own journeys to reduce carbon emissions.”
